Last Night

A few notes from around all the sports before summaries of all the NBA games.

I didn't watch the KU@K-State game, but from a look at the final score (84-75), Beasley's game and his confident words of sweeping the Jayhawks this season, this had to be the story of the night. Beasley would have to be the #1 pick overall at this point if the draft happened tonight. The kid is confident, poised and knows how to play ball. His numbers almost mirror Kevin Durant's (the 25 points and 10+ rebounds) from a season ago and they're about the same height, but their games aren't very similar at all. Durant could score from anywhere and played more perimeter O than in the post. Beasley can handle the ball as well, but his game is way stronger on the post than it is shooting treys even though he's shown that he's got the skillset to do so. He put up rather than shut up during this game too finishing with 25pts and 6rebs in the 1st of two meetings between these interstate teams. Kansas was handed its 1st loss of the season and its 1st loss at Kansas State in their last 24 visits.

I hate writing about hype in football especially the week before the Super Bowl, but a couple of hard-headed wide receivers just made dumb comments this week. I'll start with the one everyone's heard already, Plaxico Burress. Plax is a great receiver who's been blessed with enormous talent for football, but why would he start talking trash now? Antonio Pierce, who was quite vocal for the regular season game, and Michael Strahan, who loves to talk, haven't been heard from at all in terms of trashing the Pats, much less the Pats' offense. They're the ones who must stop that O and Plax is talking about the Pats scoring 17. I just want to let everyone know (if they don't already) that the Pats haven't been held under 20 once during their 18 wins this season and scored the MOST points this season in NFL history. If Plax played defense, OK I'd stop for a second and let him a little bit off the hook since he might be trying to psych himself up about playing the historic offense before him, but he's a WR... That gets me to Jerry Rice, who most people didn't see, but I saw him on "NFL Live" yesterday afternoon on ESPN. I understand the guy is the best receiver of all time, hands down, and might be the best player of all time as well, but how could he possibly pick the Giants? His 22 TD season was awesome, especially in the shortened 12 game season and it seems kind of unfair for Moss to have the "record", but a record is meant to be broken and Moss broke Rice's in the 16 games he had to get 23 TD's. Get over it Jerry and don't make yourself look like a fool on National TV. The Pats are going to win the game.

Now to the NBA games and there were quite a few of them (10 in total):

- It started in a matchup of Florida teams, Miami visiting Orlando. Miami was missing Shaq, D-Wade and Udonis Haslem, arguably their 3 best players and I fully expected them to lose and they did, 107-91. Ricky Davis had 21pts in the start at guard for Wade and if Wade keeps missing time, Davis should continue to start and produce. He's a good short-term pickup if he's even been dropped, which he should have been for a while now the way he had been playing.

- Toronto beat down on the Wizards, who were still without Caron Butler (122-83). Bargnani had a team high 19pts and is starting to be at least ownable and startable in leagues as he's had some solid games lately. I'd only upgrade his fantasy status to streaky since he's not giving you everything (only 2rebs and 3assts to go with the scoring). If Caron is to miss an extended period, Andray Blatche should be picked up in most leagues since he's got talent given the PT and he will be the chief benefactor in Butler's absence.

- The biggest blowout of the night came in Philly. Surprisingly the Sixers were the ones who won 112-69 by 43pts. I don't know how any NBA team could possibly lose to a team 10 games under .500 by 43, but the Bucks found a way. The Bucks were missing Michael Redd again, who I don't believe Milwaukee can build around. I know about his defensive struggles, but I just don't think he's a good enough player. I saw him on Team USA this summer and he thrived being a 3rd or 4th scoring option (behind guys like Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James and Kobe Bryant). He's just not a #1 guy in this league. While he's a great scorer, he isn't good on defense and he doesn't make his teammates better while he's on the court. He also looked out of shape at the beginning of this season in my humble opinion. I don't think it's because he's a headcase, I actually think Redd's one of the better guys in the league, but he doesn't have the mental toughness to be the leader of a championship caliber team (or even playoff team as we've all witnessed from this Bucks team). With that said, Royal Ivey got the start at guard and scored a team high 17pts, but the Bucks were -39pts with him in the game. The Sixers dominated this game in a total team effort with 7 players in double digits scoring and none over 20pts.

- 2 blowout games before we get to Minnesota, but this was by far the ugliest of the night. The final score was 83-67, Wolves over the Bulls, but even a score that ugly doesn't show how ridiculously bad this game was. Neither team shot close to 40% from the field. Minny shot 36.6% and Chicago shot 33.3% and only 5 total players in the game scored over 10pts. The Wolves got huge performances from their 2 bigs, Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes (26pts, 20rebs and 25pts, 10rebs, respectively). Chicago had two young bright spots with Thabo Sefolosha (14pts, 8rebs, 4blks) and Joakim Noah (10pts, 8rebs). At this point, Joakim Noah should have been picked up in deep leagues by now since Deng and Joe Smith are both still out. Noah's a rookie that does all the things Ben Wallace used to do (scrap for rebounds, block some shots, get his hands into the lane for steals and score on putbacks) and that makes him a decent start while he gets the minutes.

- Surprising game in New Orleans, where the Warriors came in and beat the Hornets, 116-103. It was surprising because NO had been so good recently (broke a 9 game winning streak in this one), but everyone knows that if the Warriors are hot, they can play with anyone. The Warriors as a team shot 52.3% and 13-27 from threes. Neither team played very badly (only 6 TO's on either side), but NO just couldn't keep up with GS in this one.

- The best game of the night thus far came in Memphis, where the Carmelo-less Nuggets visited the Gasol-less Grizzlies. Denver ended up squeezing out the win, 106-102, but not before Rudy Gay dropped 30pts and 10rebs and Darko had probably his best game of the season with 14pts, 16rebs and 5blks. With Rudy, these games aren't much of a surprise anymore, but with Darko, you gotta wait for a few of these type of performances in a row before you can decide if Darko might be producing like he was before his early season injury when he had been having his best pro campaign. Denver got 32pts and 12assts out of AI and 18pts out of Anthony Carter, who should be widely owned.

- In Utah, the Knicks tried to play tough and hang with the hot Jazz (6 straight wins and now leaders of the northwest division by 0.5gm) behind Jamal Crawford's 26pts, 9assts, but the Jazz got the win 100-89. Deron Williams is starting to look like an All-Star again (22pts, 12assts in this one), but the reserve All-Star picks come out tonight and I personally don't believe Deron will be one of them with the deep position of guards out west.

- Another ugly game was played in Portland, but at least this one was close at the end. The Lebrons went into the northwest and took the game from Brandon Roy's Trailblazers with his gamewinning drive. Lebron was the only Cav to score double digits (he did it easily too: 37pts, 14rebs) while the Cavs won 84-83. Portland got a solid all-around game from Brandon Roy (16pts, 7rebs, 8assts), but the Blazers shot only 35.3% from the field in a rare home loss (18-5 at home) and dropped to 9th in the standings.

- Sacramento is starting to look like the talented team they are. Reggie Theus played all his starters over 30mins in this one, while none of the bench players played 16 mins (John Salmons played 15mins for 8pts). All the starters score double digits with Kevin Martin (22pts) and Brad Miller (22pts, 21rebs, 3blks) leading the way for the win (105-91) over the visiting Bobcats.

- In LA, the Clippers and Hawks played in a game that I thought the Hawks should have and probably needed to win. The Clippers won the game, however, without Chris Kaman and Corey Maggette with a huge game from rookie Al Thornton (33pts and a huge block to save the game late). The Hawks are one of those teams that sneaked up on some teams early in the season and are currently sitting in the 7th playoff spot at 18-24 in the east. I personally believe this team will make the playoffs in the weak east, but they're gonna have to beat teams like the Clips, even on the road because they are not safe in any way the way they are playing right now (lost 3 straight).